Green tunnels in Kent

In Kent it is not uncommon for the hedgerows to form a tunnel.  Some are long and dark enough to require headlights in the daytime. This example is near Ightam Mote.

Sissinghurst, Kent

Sissinghurst has its famous gardens, slightly eccentric buildings, a pleasant restaurant  and an oest house. 

An oest house? Their distinctive cowls are dotted all around Kent but what is their purpose? The short answer is beer. Locally grown hops is dried on a slatted floor between the wood-fired furnace below and the venting cowl above.

From the Sissinghurst Tower

Canterbury Cathedral

This is the ceiling of the Chapter House at Canterbury Catherderal. Made from bog oak, it is so dense and hard that, according to our guide, it requires little or no maintenance. . The Chapter House is now a multi-purpose hall, complete with urns and folding tables.

A word about church and town guides in England. They are invariably cheerful, knowledgeable and nearing the age of the monuments and buildings they so lovingly describe. Guided town tours are well worth seeking out.  Our favourites are walking tours of Bath and Canterbury. For those who prefer cycling to walking, a Fat Tires tour is almost compulsory. 

Thomas Becket was not the only Archbishop of Canterbury to be murdered; but he was the only one to meet his end in Canterbury Cathedral..

Stained glass tells the story of miracles claimed by pilgrims to Becket's tomb. Pilgrimages to Canterbury commenced after Becket's death until Henry VIII destroyed the tomb in the early 14th century.

The severe grey chair east of the alter is only used for investitures of Archbishops of Canterbury.

Camping in Kent

This is Chilham, about 10 minute's walk from our lodgings at Cork Farm at Old Wives Lees, Kent. A very pleasant and civil place.  A building on The Square is above, St Mary's church is below.

In my previous post I mentioned the consequences of reckless form filling.  The later flight arrived on time at Heathrow, but fate was about to have her say.  First there were lengthy queues at passport control.  We were among the last to be processed.  A baggage handler had the day off, we were told, so our bags were slow to emerge. Nonetheless it was good to be on the ground.

I booked a car from a company called Green Motion many months ago. We were expecting someone from Green Motion to meet us at the shed that is Terminal 3, or at least to answer our call to its office nearby. Plan B was hastily formed and put into effect.  This involved taking a courtesy bus to the Avis depot (which seemed to be closer to Bristol than Terminal 3) to become a "walk-up".  Apparently a walkup has criminal tendencies that justify some additional charges, but at least the staff were helpful and had a car available.

We drove to Kent.

We arrived at Old Wives Lees at bout 11pm, just as our hosts were taking their phone off the hook.  Plan C? No other accommodation was available so we slept in the car.  Early next morning we made belated contact with our host who cheerfully suggested that perhaps we should have contacted him earlier.

After finally getting some sleep we set about exploring this fascinating area, starting with Canterbury.
  

  

Chilham door.

Changi and the folly of forms

So many forms.  Many months ago I made a mistake in our booking form for our flight from Singapore to London.  In the twenty minutes it took to rectify the problem, we lost our seats on the 9am flight.  Not too perturbed, we settled for the 12:45pm, aboard the A380.  After a restful night in the transit hotel, waiting in Changi Airport for a few hours was not too burdensome.  Koi and butterflies make fine, gentle entertainment and a next to our departure gate.  All appeared to be well, but the aforementioned error had consequences later that day.  

Iceland

Iceland is like no other place we visited. Its landscapes are breathtaking.

The fact that geothermal energy provides most space heating and a significant amount of electricity generation is a hint that this is an unusual place.

We took an eight hour bus excursion around the "golden circle" from Reykjavík.

Apart from the stark volcanic landscape we saw the Golden Waterfall, Gullfoss, and erupting hot spings at the Geysir geothermal area, before visiting the rift valley at Thingvellir.

At Thingvellir the valley floor is subsiding because the North American tetonic plate is pulling away from the European plate. Our bus took just a minute or two to travel from Europe to North America.

Ring of Kerry

We cruised gently around the Ring of Kerry in west Ireland, and saw not one tourist bus. More astonishing was that it didn't rain.






Sylvia found a pleasant shop in Kenmare. We also had a pleasant meal.